By EZEKIEL OBI, Abuja –
The Special Adviser to the president on Information and Strategy, Bayo Onanuga has said the embattled former Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) Governor, Godwin Emefiele and his cohorts would be facing a firing squad if they were in China.
Mr. Onanuga stated this on Friday while reacting to the outcome of a presidential panel investigating the activities of the Apex bank under Emefiele’s tenure.
Presidential aide, Bayo Onanuga
NATIONAL ACCORD reports that the findings from Mr. Jim Obazee, the Special Investigator probing the activities of CBN, revealed that Emefiele and his gangs embezzled billions of naira and committed other gross financial offences.
Below is a list of financial frauds allegedly perpetuated by Emefiele according to Premium Times report:
UNDER THE FORMER CBN GOVERNOR – WHAT THE CBN INVESTIGATOR FOUND
— Unauthorized funded 593 Bank accounts located in the UK, US, and China
— Fraudulent cash withdrawal of $6.23 million from CBN vault under a purported approval of the president to pay foreign election observers
— Gross financial misconduct by Ex CBN Governor and at least 13 other individuals, including his Deputy Governors
— £543.4 million kept in fixed deposit by Mr. Emefiele
— Manipulation of the Naira exchange rate and perpetration of fraud in the e-Naira project of the CBN
— The Naira Redesign was neither recommended by the Board of the CBN nor approved by the then President
— The CBN printed the new N200, N500, N1,000 notes at a total cost of N61.5 billion out of which N31.8 billion has been paid to the Contractor
— The sum of N1.73 billion was spent on questionable legal fees on 19 cases that are directly traceable to the Naira Redesign and reconfiguration agenda
— £205,000 was paid to a UK Firm for Naira Redesign effort – positioning of watermark, presence of QR codes, different numbering style, and other complex security features
— Fraudulent use of Ways & Means to the tune of N26.627 trillion
— Fraudulent intervention programmes
— Fraudulent expenditures on COVID-19
— Misrepresentation of presidential approval on the NESI Stabilization Strategy Ltd.
— Padding of former president Buhari’s approval with N198.96 billion – approximating N801.04 billion to N1 trillion
— No approvals are received from the former president and yet N500 billion was taken and debited to Ways & Means
— Former CBN Governor and 4 Deputies connived to steal outrightly in order to balance the books of the CBN
— No approval for the breakdown of N22.72 trillion presented to the 9th National Assembly to illegally securitize the “Ways & Means” financing
Reacting to the allegations, Mr. Onanugu wrote on X: “If Godwin Emefiele and his gang had committed these egregious misappropriations in China, they will by now be facing the firing squad for high treason.”
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